What Now?
by LemonPink
Summary: Bella isn't sure where her life is going or even how she is where she is now five years after graduating college. Due to circumstances beyond his control Edward finds himself burdened with responsibility and yearning for stability. AH\AU
1. Chapter 1

**I do not own Twilight. I thank Stephanie Meyer for the lovely characters to play with.**

**Summary: Bella isn't sure where her life is going, what the next step should be or even how she is where she is now five years after graduating college. Due to circumstances beyond his control Edward finds himself burdened with responsibility and yearning for stability. AH\AU**

**Chapter One: Typical Tuesday**

"Excuse me Miss, You shorted me a penny," the elderly customer complained from the other side of the counter.

"It's right here ma'am, you dropped it on top of the pile of circulars," Bella responded with a thinly pasted on smile as she grabbed the wayward penny. "Sorry again for your inconvenience, have a nice day."

At 27, Bella never expected to still be working at the same grocery store she'd eagerly started working at during her junior year of high school. She had grand plans for her life and they did not include over-apologizing to the over-60 set for things that were either beyond her control or could not possibly been her fault, but here she was two hours into her four-hour Tuesday shift behind the customer service counter at Pathmark.

"Did you really give that woman her money back _and_ free scallops?" Bella's co-worker Jessica asked incredulously a few minutes later after the crowd of customers had been taken care of.

"Trust me, I didn't want to," Bella responded with irritation, "But Aro seems to be in a people pleasing mood today and is willing to give the customers whatever they want."

Bella and Aro, the store manager, had gotten off on the wrong foot within weeks of his arrival at their store and the ice hasn't seemed to thaw any in the two years since. This was foreign to Bella who had always been a favorite of her teachers and bosses. Having worked hard at being a model employee after their rough introduction, Bella was finally beginning to realize that she was just never going to find herself on Aro's good side and she would have to be okay with that. As much as she hated to admit it, the whole situation still grated on her from time to time.

"I'm going to grab a soda while it's slow, you want anything?" Jessica asked, interrupting Bella's inner musings.

"Could you grab me a Vitamin Water?" answered Bella. "You know the XXX kind I usually drink."

Bella rooted through her cluttered purse for a couple dollars to give Jessica to cover the price of her drink. After Jessica left the comfy confines of their customer service counter, she went about doing some paper work for the lottery and money order machines to keep herself occupied.

"Do you have a pen?" a man's loud voice broke through Bella's busy-work haze.

She wordlessly handed over the pen, knowing from experience that pretty much everyone coming into this store was in a hurry and those stopping by the customer service counter needed a pen always seemed to be in the biggest rush. Her using words would slow them down and make them slightly more irritable than normal. This may sound cruel, but Bella wasn't a rude person, nor was she miserable or even cynical. She was far from all of these things, but while at Pathmark she ran on a robotic auto pilot.

Continuing her paperwork, Bella waited until the customer was finished filling out his Western Union form, knowing again from experience, not to hover while they filled out the required information. Sensing that he was just about finished, she walked over to the customer with her work smile fixed to her pale face. It was October and Bella couldn't remember the last time she'd been out in the sun aside from the walk from her car to her office every morning.

"Hi Sir, how can I help you?" she asked pleasantly.

"I need this sent immediately," the portly man who appeared to be about the same age as her father said.

Glancing at the paperwork, Bella noticed that he was sending $500 to a woman with the same last name in Tampa Bay, Florida. She had been to Tampa once she thought wistfully, one of the greatest weeks of her life.

"It can be sent money in minutes, but that will cost more than next day," Bella explained carefully before processing the man's transaction.

"My daughter is in school down there and she overdrew her account, so she needs this money NOW," he reiterated forcefully and slowly as if Bella had trouble understanding.

"Of course sir," she answered in an evenly peaceful tone, while thinking that while she had a fantastic father who loved her and who would never let her hurt for anything, Charlie would not be sending her that money if she was dumb enough to over draw her own account. He might call for a lecture on financial responsibilities and if she were desperate send her a check to cover immediate expenses, but it would be with the unspoken agreement that she'd pay him back. Not that Bella had ever found herself in this situation, but both she and Charlie knew she was too responsible to do it any other way.

Continuing to click away at the Western Union application on the computer, Bella finally has everything ready to send and informs the man that along with the $500 he was sending to his daughter, he would need to pay a $45 fee for it to be there in twenty minutes.

"I know," he said tersely, which led her to believe this might not be the first time his daughter had done a little too much spending in the Sunshine State. She wrapped up the transaction and wished the man, or rather his back, a good evening as he turned and hurried away from the counter.

Turning as she heard the door opening, Bella saw Jessica coming back in with their drinks. Having been lost in her own thoughts, she'd forgotten that Jess had stepped out for the drinks about 15 minutes ago.

"Sorry that took so long, I was talking to Mike," Jess explained with a smile that conveyed that she wasn't sorry at all.

As soon as she heard mention of the front end manager's name, Bella knew she was lucky Jess had come back in just 15 minutes, there were nights when she disappeared for much longer and when it was much busier. Jess and Mike weren't dating, never had been. She didn't even think they ever actually would, but flirting was second nature to both of them and they enjoyed the verbal foreplay that appeared to be heading no where so Bella kept her mouth shut on that topic.

"Was it busy while I was gone?" asked Jess.

"Not at all, just one Western Union," Bella answered. "Oh and I finished the lottery paperwork, too."

"Thanks!" exclaimed Jess gratefully, "I hate trying to get those numbers to add up correctly!"

It quickly got busy again and the girls spend the next 45 minutes selling lottery tickets, cigarettes, processing Western Unions and soothing the ruffled feathers of disgruntled customers, with little time to talk. Bella had a lot to learn when she'd been transferred into the customer service department a few years ago. She wasn't much of a gambler, so the lottery was foreign to her, she didn't smoke so she could barely tell one brand from another let alone menthols, lights, ultra lights, slims, etc… and then there was Western Union. Bella remembered the commercials she'd seen on television growing up about the instant money transfers, but when the commercials stopped airing she'd assumed the company went with it. Not so much. She had no idea it was this popular. During a four-hour shift it wouldn't be surprising to see a dozen people sending or receiving money via WU. While transactions like that of the generous father, to another city in the U.S. weren't normally that common, plenty of people paid their bills through wire transfer, or sent money out of the country to friends and relatives.

Before she knew it, Jess was gathering her things and getting ready to head home. She was done an hour earlier than Bella tonight.

"Finally! Time to go!" Jess cried out happily as she buttoned her coat.

"Lucky you," Bella smiled at her exuberant friend, "Did you still want to go see that new Katherine Heigl movie this weekend?"

"Absolutely!" replied Jess as she made her way to the door. "I'm working until nine on Friday so how about a late movie?"

"Works for me, I'm done at 7," Bella said, happy to have some plans in place for the weekend, "I'll see you then, have a good night!"

"G'night!" Jess called back over her shoulder.

While Bella and Jessica may not be the best of friends, she enjoyed having someone to go see a movie with or grab a drink or dinner with on occasion. Jess was a few years younger than Bella and working part time at Pathmark was her only job, so she normally had much more free time than Bella, who put in at least forty hours a week at her full-time job about 20 miles away.

Having grown up in the Philadelphia suburbs, Bella had grand plans of graduating college and moving south. For no real reason she could pinpoint, aside from a general dislike for winter weather, Bella had always dreamed of living her adult life somewhere between Virginia and Florida. She wasn't picky, any of the East Coast states in between would suffice. But here she was, five years after graduating college spending her weekdays in a cubicle and her nights and weekends catering to the general public. Her life wasn't devoid of pleasure and relaxing free time, it was just a little harder to come by than she would have liked. Nor was all of her hard work for nothing, she'd enjoyed quite a few vacations over the years and tonight when she went home it would be to her house. The one she purchased over the summer with her savings. She knew she worked hard and put in a lot of hours each week between her two jobs, but to be able to pay her mortgage every month, on her own, was a huge accomplishment to Bella.

She'd worked hard for her independence, but now that she had it, she wasn't so sure what to do with it. As long as she could remember Bella had been working toward one goal, save enough to buy a house. She had a house. And while there were still plenty of improvement projects she wanted to tackle, she had no big goal in mind, which threw her slightly off balance. For Bella it had always been do well in school, find and succeed at a job you enjoy and buy a house. She'd come to the end of her long term goal list and she wasn't sure what to add at this point.

Her last hour passed quickly with just a few customers and before she knew it Bella was closing up the customer service counter and heading to clock out and pick up a few things before heading home.

Pulling up to her house, Bella couldn't help but smile at the Halloween decorations glowing in her window. It was the first holiday she'd been able to decorate for at her new home, and while she couldn't afford to go all out, Bella made sure to make an effort. She was looking forward to handing out candy to the eager trick-or-treaters in a few weeks. Halloween had always been one of her favorite holidays. She and Charlie spend quality time carving pumpkins every year that are usually the much more elaborate than any others in the neighborhood. It was one of her favorite father-daughter bonding times. Charlie had promised her that he'd come over in a few weeks and they'd carve double the number of pumpkins they normally would so they could both have some to display.

Walking to the front door, Bella stopped to pick the mail, an assortment of bills, coupons and political advertisements, and sighed as she flipped on the lights. Fifteen hours after leaving the house for work that morning she was finally home. She took a few minutes to grab a drink and a snack before settling in front of the television to veg out and relax for the first time all day.

She lost herself in last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother on her DVR for a half hour before heading up to bed. Climbing exhausted into her cozy queen-sized bed, Bella's last thoughts before succumbing to sleep were what direction is her life supposed to be headed in now?

**Thanks so much for reading. All criticism, positive or negative, is welcome. I don't have a strict outline for this story so I'd love to have some readers who want to bounce ideas with me.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I do not own Twilight. I thank Stephanie Meyer for the lovely characters to play with.**

**Summary: Bella isn't sure where her life is going, what the next step should be or even how she is where she is now five years after graduating college. Due to circumstances beyond his control Edward finds himself burdened with responsibility and yearning for stability. AH\AU**

**Chapter Two: New Things at the Office**

Bella's alarm clock went off at 5:30 the next morning as it does every Monday-Thursday. She managed to turn that one off and roll over, but when the second alarm she set for 5:45 started blaring, she knew it was time to get up. It's not that she wasn't a morning person, but she had trouble dragging herself out of bed before the sun came up.

As she went about her morning routine, Bella was careful to open the bathroom skylight. In the time she'd lived in her new home, the bathroom skylight had quickly become the bane of her existence. If she left it closed during her shower and didn't completely shut the bathroom door, the steam would set off the smoke detector in the hallway, which at 5'4, she was not tall enough to reach without running to the kitchen for a broom. If she opened the skylight, there was the chance she'd forget to close it before leaving for work. Most days this wasn't a problem, but last week an all-day storm had ravaged the neighborhood and she came home to a bathroom full of puddles, leaves and dirt. The twenty minutes she spent mopping up her bathroom were enough to make her extremely careful to close that damn skylight every day. It was one of the few things Bella did not love about her new home. The house was part of a brick row home community and Bella loved having so many neighbors around, they made her feel less lonely coming home to an empty house. She also fell in love with the brick exterior, front patio, back deck and spacious rooms. It was just the tiny, windowless bathroom she wasn't a huge fan of, but in the grand scheme of things it was a small fly in the ointment.

Making sure to turn off all the lights and lock the doors, Bella was out the door before seven and headed to Wawa to pick up breakfast. She had recently changed her schedule at her fulltime job to a four-day, ten-hour work week. While the days were long, the Friday's off were a huge incentive. She was also lucky enough, if you considered leaving for work before the Today Show starts lucky, to miss much of the Philadelphia-area morning rush hour traffic. That in and of itself was worth it to Bella to jump at the chance to begin the new schedule. Most days she worked 7:30-6, but her hours were flexible and if she needed to go in earlier or later, it was not a problem. It made for a long day, but Bella felt the advantages far outweighed the disadvantages.

She settled into her desk in the quiet office, which wouldn't start filling up for another hour, and dove right into her workday. Having grown up with Charlie who was a huge sports fan, his passion could not have helped but rub off on his only daughter. Earning bachelor's degrees in English and Journalism in college, Bella was able to combine two of her loves, sports and writing, at her current job. She spent her days creating previews for various sports matchups that were distributed to a number of websites nationwide. While she wasn't out actually interviewing the Chase Utley's and Peyton Manning's of the world, Bella enjoyed researching and analyzing stats and trends to find something unique about each mathcup she wrote. She loved her job, co-workers and especially enjoyed working for her boss, Garrett, an Aussie import who still hung on to a hint of his accent. The only downside was that she was the only female in the office and was considerably younger and less married than her co-workers. Most days it didn't bother her, she fit in well and could banter and hold her own in sports debates as well as any guy her age could, but there were the days they'd point out her age or gender difference and she'd feel slightly like an alien life form, not quite sure she belonged. Thankfully those days were few and far between. Another perk of the job was the relaxed dress code. This morning Bella was happily wearing jeans, a long sleeve t-shirt and sneakers.

Tyler was the first to arrive after Bella each morning. He wasn't much of a morning person so Bella usually didn't hear much from him until after he had his morning coffee. If she was completely engrossed in her work she wouldn't even noticed he'd come in until the smell of percolating coffee made its way to her desk. Tyler Crowley was old enough to be her father and had kids in college, but he was always pleasant to Bella and never doubted her knowledge like some men his age had in the past.

The next of her co-workers to arrive was Eric, who on most days strode into the office whistling a nameless tune as he set up his laptop. Eric Yorkie was their resident stat geek. While the whole office loved sports and stats, he could tell you about a random game from June of 1994, where the Phillies beat the Padres 6-3 and John Kruk had two homers, off the top of his head. We had no idea where how he'd retained all of this seemingly useless information, but it came in handy quite a bit.

Austin was the last of their small office group to stroll in. He usually looked fairly frazzled by the time he got to the office, having had to get his toddler son up, ready and dropped off at daycare before he came in. Quite a feat for a man, who like Tyler, was not a morning person. Austin Marks arrived each morning with the largest coffee cup Wawa has to offer and could be seen refilling it repeatedly throughout the morning. His humor synapses usually didn't start firing until about lunchtime and then he'd join in the office conversations.

They were all quietly working with a soccer game playing softly on a television in the background, Garrett and Eric were huge fans of the sport, when Garrett called Bella into his office. While this wasn't an unusual occurrence, she was intrigued. Garrett never really yelled or even reprimanded her for that matter. Whenever she was in his office it was usually to discuss a new project or some issues that a customer had found in one of her previews. She also liked going into Garrett's office because he kept a small dish stocked with candy that he encouraged his employees to raid, even when he was out of the office, but Bella only felt comfortable entering his inner sanctum when she'd been called in.

Bella wrapped up a preview of an upcoming NHL game, making sure to save her work, before heading to Garrett's office. At the sound of her knock he waved her in, but remained with his back to her, finishing an email before facing Bella with a smile. She quickly took a seat and unwrapped a mini 3 Musketeer bar, her favorite, and waited for Garrett to begin.

"Good morning Bella," Garrett began in is Aussie lilt, "We were just contacted by one of our biggest customers, and while they love the work we are providing them now, they want us to expand and create profiles chock full of information for each team in the NFL, MLB, NHL and NBA. And if this works out the way they hope, they to expand into college teams next."

"Wow, that's big," Bella responded, unsure why Garrett had called her in specifically and not brought it up at their weekly team meeting later in the day.

"It is," he confirmed, "And I'd like you to head up the project."

Bella was speechless. She was the youngest and least experienced member of the team, but here was Garrett handing over the reins of this huge project to her. Realizing that Bella wasn't sure what to say next, he continued.

"I want you to create a mock profile for a team, picking what you think would be relevant information, thinks like venue, coach, year the franchise formed, etc… and once you have all that, you and I will go over it and see how we can work on setting something up in the database to roll out to everyone so that they can begin working on just plugging information into the profiles. Do you think you'll have time to fit this in this week? I know its short notice, but we want to get moving on this right away."

"No problem," Bella replied without even thinking of the mountain of work waiting for her back at her desk. She was dying for the chance to do something new and didn't want Garrett to think she couldn't handle the new challenge.

"Excellent," he said. "We'll meet on Friday afternoon and go over what you have and see what kind of changes we should make."

"Sounds good," Bella replied. "I'll start working on it this afternoon."

After exchanging goodbyes, Bella walked back to her desk, drawing the curious eyes of her co-workers. It was rare for any of them to spend 20 minutes in Garrett's office with the door closed. Garrett had an open door policy and most people just popped in to ask simple questions.

She, Tyler, Eric and Austin sat in an open and airy room outside of Garrett's office with their desks clustered in a square. For the most part the arrangement worked out well, they were able to bounce ideas off each other, take part in typical work place water cooler chat and on rare occasions, or more often then they'd like to admit, they played a little desktop football to relieve some stress during their busy season. There were times that the arrangement didn't work out so well. Eric's mother called at least twice a week to harass him, and more often now that his wife was expecting their first child, and the lack of privacy meant that pretty much everyone heard at least half of the conversation. Austin had a tendency to curse at his computer or slam things on his desk when he got frustrated, which usually caused Bella to jump. Tyler was a bit of a hoarder and having been there longer than any of them, he had so much on his desk, under his desk and surrounding his desk that some days it seeped over to everyone else's work stations. Bella, who spent at least a few hours a day listening to her iPod as she worked, was known to randomly burst into song without realizing it. Normally when this happened one of the guys would toss a wadded up piece of paper at her to gain her attention and she'd blush furiously, packing up her iPod for the day.

Feeling good about her meeting with Garrett, she decided to shoot an email to her brother Emmett to see if he and his wife Rosalie wanted to grab dinner that night. Bella was off from Pathmark and aside from not wanting to cook, she felt like sharing her good news with her older brother. Emmett, an accountant at a local Ford dealer, quickly answered saying that he and Rosie were free and would meet her at Olive Garden at 7. She had to laugh at Emmett's choice in restaurants, her bottomless pit of a brother was a huge fan of the endless salad and bread sticks.

With her evening plans set, Bella got back to work on her previews due that day. She finished quicker than normal, eager to get a jump start on her special project from Garrett. Preview, Inc., the company for which she worked, was rather small, without much room for advancement unless she was gunning for Garrett's job, but Bella knew that impressing her boss on this project could lead to bigger and better things. She just wasn't sure what or where.

Before she knew it, Tyler, Eric and Austin, none of whom decided to take advantage of the four-day work week, were saying their goodnights and Bella realized she had just another half hour before quitting time herself. Putting the finishing touches on a few last minute previews she'd been assigned that afternoon, Bella shut down her computer with a smile and waved goodnight to Garrett before leaving.

Emmett and Rosalie were waiting for Bella at Olive Garden. Both finish their work day earlier than Bella so they had time to spare. As she approached the couple, Bella was soon engulfed in a crushing bear hug. The move was classic Emmett. The former college football player still found time to work out and still didn't know his own strength. He was also a gregarious, loving and over-protective big brother. After weaseling her way out of Emmett's embrace, Bella gave her sister-in-law a quick hug, wondering for the million and twelfth time how Emmett got so lucky. He met Rosie on his first day at the Ford dealership. One of the perks to Emmett's job was a company car, and while Emmett may be crunching numbers at a car dealership, he doesn't know a remote start from a television remote. At the end of the day he was went out to his new Escape and noticed the check engine light flash on as he was about to drive out of the lot. Immediately reversing, Emmett took the car to the service department where he insulted Rosalie, the service manager, thinking that she was the cashier. Rosie promptly put Emmett in his place and made him wait two hours to get a simple oil change, even though she should have left about the same time Emmett was originally trying to.

For the next month, Emmett showed up at work every day with an apology gift. He tried flowers, candy, desserts, car magazines, stuffed animals, etc… Rosie, who admits now that she was charmed by his persistence, finally caved when he asked her to teach him a few simple things to help him maintenance a car. The pair spent the next eight weekends working on one of Rosie's old Mustangs before she agreed to go on her first date with Emmett. Rosie never had the heart to tell Emmett that the work she'd let him do those eight weeks had hurt more than it helped her restoration of the car, causing her to put in more hours when he wasn't around, but she did give him the car as a wedding present since it was a big part in their getting together. The couple married two years ago and lived about a half hour drive from Bella and she couldn't be happier about it, Rosalie was one of her closest friends and she had always idolized her big brother.

Once they'd been seated and ordered, Bella shared her work news with the table, which was met with heartfelt congratulations from Rosalie and brotherly pride and admiration from Emmett. He had always admired his sister for her work ethic and couldn't be happier that she was getting a chance to show off her skills.

Dinner was served and the trio shared a number of laughs over stories about their family, friends and work, but before she knew it Bella was driving back to her house and that feeling of loneliness and foreboding that had plagued her the night before returned. Things were looking up for her on the job front and she was happy about that, but she still couldn't help but wonder what else she was supposed to be doing with her life. She went to work, went to work some more at her part-time job, visited with family and the few friends she still had living in the area, but with many of them married or engaged, she was seeing less and less of her old friends. She'd worked hard and accomplished all of the big goals on her list, wasn't she supposed to feel satisfied? Successful? Happy? And she did feel these things sometimes, but something was still missing. She just wished she knew what it was.

**Thanks so much for reading. All criticism, positive or negative, is welcome. I don't have a strict outline for this story so I'd love to have some readers who want to bounce ideas with me. I will say that Edward and the rest of the core Twilight gang are coming soon. I wanted to build up my characters a little before diving into the story. I promise not every chapter will be a day in the life type thing. The story will start progressing once I have the characters established. Thanks again for reading my drabbles!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Twilight. I thank Stephanie Meyer for the lovely characters to play with.**

**Summary: Bella isn't sure where her life is going, what the next step should be or even how she is where she is now five years after graduating college. Due to circumstances beyond his control Edward finds himself burdened with responsibility and yearning for stability. AH\AU**

**Chapter Three: Waking Up**

Thursday passed in a blur for Bella. It was much like Wednesday; she knocked out her necessary work early in the morning and dove into her project from Garrett in the afternoon. She finally had a mock profile she was proud to show Garrett around 5, but she still couldn't stop the butterflies invading her stomach as she walked into his office to share her work. Knocking on his door, Garrett welcomed her with a smile and a wave of his hand, indicating that she should take a seat. Noticing that he was out of 3 Musketeer bars today, Bella settled for a mini Reese Cup to calm her nerves as she prepared to go over her work with Garrett.

A half hour later Bella walked out of Garrett's office beaming. He loved her mock profile and had very few changes he wanted to implement. He was even going to have her lead the presentation to the rest of the team next week to teach them how to use the application she'd created. This called for a celebration, but as Bella settled back at her desk thinking of who to call to meet for dinner or a drink to help her enjoy her latest accomplishment, she drew a blank. She'd been out with Emmett and Rosalie the night before, and while she loved her brother and was sure he'd be happy for her, she couldn't bring herself to intrude on the couple again. Her best friend was her college roommate Emily, but she was engaged to her college sweetheart Sam and currently living and working in Buffalo, a bit of a drive for a celebratory drink. Her other close friend from college that she still talked to on a regular basis, Claire, was living in Florida, working for the tourism bureau. Bella still kept up through email with a few of her other friends from her college days, but wasn't close enough anymore to call them about something like this. Having grown up in the area, Bella always marveled at how many of her childhood friends had hightailed it out of the Philadelphia area over the past few years. She had a few friends at Pathmark, like Jess, who were good for a movie, but Jess wasn't the person you call first with the good news. Her parents would be happy for her. Charlie and Renee Swan still lived in the home she'd grown up in and she would be welcomed over for dinner in a heartbeat if she called, but something was holding her back.

Two years ago this would have been the information she immediately called or texted Riley to share and they would go to one of their favorite restaurants or meet up at the grocery store to pick up something to make together. Bella had finally gotten over the heartbreak from the end of her relationship with Riley, but she still missed having him to call when she needed a friendly voice. The couple had been friends for six years before they even began dating, so the end of their relationship also spelled the end of a long friendship. Even two years later Bella wasn't sure she was ready for another relationship, but thinking about Riley was quickly bringing Bella down from her good news high, so she'd save analyzing that part of her life for another time. Resigned to the fact that she had no one to call with about her good day, Bella quietly packed up her desk, set her out of office email and left with the happy notion that she didn't have to come back here until Monday.

Friday morning dawned grey and drizzly, but Bella loved her Friday mornings off. She set about her morning routine and once she was ready to go she grabbed her Kindle, a Christmas gift from Emmett last year, and left to enjoy one of her favorite parts of the week. On Friday mornings, while the rest of the world was slaving away at their desks, Bella made the short drive to South Philly for breakfast at Melrose Diner. Living on her own the past few months had taught Bella to be more independent and she was more shocked than anyone to learn that she enjoyed venturing out alone. She had no problem dining by herself and was particularly fond of seeing matinée movies on her own. Bella wasn't anti-social really, but she'd learned the joys of not having someone try to talk to her during a movie or wrestle over the armrest with.

Bella spent an hour sipping her tea and reading an older John Grisham novel, The Testament, while she enjoyed her breakfast. The staff at Melrose was friendly and Bella enjoyed the bright atmosphere and bustling energy of the diner. Not to mention the buttercream cake that more weeks than not she ordered a slice of to go to enjoy later. Bella also picked up a slice of apple pie today, a treat for her co-worker Esme, who she knew she'd be working with later this afternoon. Bella had been working the early Friday evening shift at Pathmark since she'd started her new work schedule. The rest of the afternoon was spent running the errands she never got to during the week, picking up her dry cleaning, hitting the post office for more stamps and getting prescriptions refilled.

"Bella! Welcome to the madhouse," Esme greeted her later that afternoon.

"Is it that bad today?" she asked as she unzipped her coat and slid Esme's piece of apple pie toward her.

"Oh Bella, you shouldn't have," exclaimed Esme as she saw the Melrose bag, knowing it would be the apple pie she loved. "And to answer your question, yes, the customers are in rare form today."

"It's not a problem Esme, I was at Melrose this morning and since I couldn't leave without getting dessert for myself, I figured you could use a treat too," Bella reasoned.

"Well if you insist…" Esme trailed off, grabbing a fork from under the counter, planning to sample her pie while the customer service counter was shockingly empty for the time being.

Esme was a matronly looking woman in her early 50s, who much to her dismay, had never had children of her own. Years ago Esme had been married to a local politician, and while many of the details never hit the press, if Bella one was to believe the gossip circles, the politician had abused her wonderful co-worker physically, emotionally and mentally. Bella had never asked Esme about her marriage, feeling it wasn't her place to dig into her personal life, but Bella did know that as a natural nurturer, Esme looked after everyone in the store and was the first one there with a kind word, sympathetic shoulder or when she thought you were screwing up, a stern talking to. Bella had never been on the receiving end of one of Esme's lecture, but they were legendary.

Business picked up after Esme finished her pie and Bella quickly found herself immersed in lottery sales and customer questions (and of course the odd complaint about service, quality, and general grumpiness). One of Bella's favorite customers came in and spent ten minutes telling her about his grandchildren and his upcoming trip to Atlantic City. She had never quite understood why, but the senior citizen set seemed to flock to Bella, many of them would stop by the counter just to chat with her for a moment or two before continuing their shopping. If only the men under 60 noticed her as often as the men who qualified for senior citizen discounts.

Around 6:30 Bella spotted a familiar customer approaching the counter. Standing just over 6'0 tall, with messy auburn hair, this particular customer stood out from the crowd. He had green eyes, and pale skin that was dotted with a few freckles. He came in to the store every Friday around this time, and though she didn't know more about him other than his name was Edward (information supplied to her courtesy of Esme), but subtly checking him out each time he came in was one of the highlights of her week.

"Bella," Esme called out softly breaking her from her daydreams, "Can you take care of the next customer for me, I've got to go check a price for someone."

"No problem Esme," she replied, and then noticing that Edward was the next customer in line, her cheeks immediately flushed a startling shade of red. "I can run and check the price for you if you want," she added, not quite sure that she was ready to talk to the slice of sunshine that brought her out of her own head for a few minutes every Friday.

"I've got it Bella, you just take care of Edward for me," Esme responded, and if Bella didn't know her better, she'd think there was a bit of mischief lurking in Esme's smile as she waved to Edward on her way to the opposite end of the store. Taking a deep breath Bella steeled herself and worked up a smile before walking to greet Edward.

"Hi, how are you today?" she asked politely as she tried not to stare. Esme always waited on him and would spend a few moments talking to him quietly while she took care of his Western Union paperwork, so this was the first time she'd seen him so close.

"I'm fine thank you, how are you?" he quietly answered while fiddling with the pen in his hands.

"Great, thanks. How can I help you today?" Bella continued as she also noted that this handsome man looked tired. He had faint purple rings rimming his eyes and while his green eyes were a startling shade, they looked dull and lifeless. She couldn't help but wonder what had this beautiful man looking so exhausted and defeated.

"Could you send this for me please?" he softly asked, not meeting her eyes as he slid the form across the counter.

"Sure, this will just take a few minutes," Bella replied in what she hoped was a reassuring tone. Edward also seemed slightly skittish and nervous.

She glanced down at the paper, confirming what she already knew, that his first name was Edward, his last name was Cullen. The last name seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place it so she continued to scan the rest of the form. He was sending $50 to a Carlisle Cullen in _prison?_ Edward did not look like the type of man to be consorting with criminals. His usual Friday attire consisted of dress pants, a button down shirt and a loosened tie.

Trying not to seem phased by the new development, Bella began intently entering the information into the computer and didn't look to Edward again until it was time to inform him that there was a $6.95 fee attached to his transaction. Edward had the exact change in his hand and ready to go, which led Bella to believe this was not the first time he sent money to Carlisle Cullen. Was Carlisle his brother? A cousin? She couldn't help but wonder. Bella was struck by a strong desire to make small talk with Edward while they waited for the transaction to process, but she couldn't seem to find anything to say.

"Any exciting plans for the weekend?" Bella blurted out, seemingly losing track of metal filter. She wanted to cringe and take the words back the second they were out of her mouth. She hoped he wouldn't think she was asking him out!

"Uh, oh…well…" began Edward who appeared just as flustered as she did.

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked," Bella quickly jumped in to apologize and hopefully end this awkward encounter before she embarrassed herself further.

"No, no, it's fine," he answered as he took a deep breath to seemingly settle his nerves, "I'm taking my little brother shopping for a suit to wear to his Homecoming dance."

Not quite the answer Bella expected from him.

"That should be fun," Bella tried to respond brightly, unsure of how to answer him.

"I'd settle for quick and relatively," replied Edward with a hint of a smile.

Bella smiled back and could have sworn that she saw Edward's smile increase just a little as she did. The paperwork had finally printed and was ready to be signed, so she wrapped everything up and cashed out the transaction. With everything now completed, she didn't really have a reason to draw out the conversation.

"Well, good luck shopping," she said cheerfully, handing him his portion of the paperwork, "and have a great weekend."

"Thank you Bella, you too," Edward said gently, giving her one final slight grin before walking away.

Bella had never been happier to wear a nametag in her life, since she knew she hadn't told him her name.

Esme came back almost at the same time Edward left and from the look on her face, she'd been discreetly watching the encounter between Bella and Edward.

"Thanks for taking care of that for me," Esme said. "How is Edward this week? I worry about him."

Bella knew that Esme worried about everyone, but she seemed to have an extra soft spot for Edward.

"Fine, I guess," she replied, not quite sure what Esme was asking about, "He's taking his little brother shopping for a Homecoming suit."

"Good, good," echoed Esme, "I'm glad he's doing well."

Unsure of whether or not she really wanted to know, or continue living in the fantasy world where that cute green-eyed man could be anyone she wanted, she asked Esme, "What's his story?"

She knew there had to be a story, no one could look as drained and emotionally beaten down as he did without having a story.

"It's not really my story to tell," Esme replied with a sad smile. "But I can tell you that boy needs a friend."

Bella murmured in agreement as a group of customers approached the counter wanting a rain check for the paper towels on sale. She had a steady stream of customers the remainder of her shift, which helped the time pass quickly, but she couldn't stop her mind from flipping back to her brief encounter with Edward Cullen. She wasn't sure what to make of it, the whole thing had happened so quickly, but she couldn't stop thinking of his timid smile.

Bidding a goodnight to Esme, Bella set out to pick up a few groceries so she'd have something to make for dinner that night. As Bella pulled up to her house, for the first time all week instead of the endless questions that had been plaguing her about her future, Bella felt some hope that something good was coming.

**Thanks so much for reading. All criticism, positive or negative, is welcome. I don't have a strict outline for this story so I'd love to have some readers who want to bounce ideas with me. Not sure if I should include an EPOV in this story, thoughts? Thanks again for reading my drabbles!**


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